A forum where you, the small business owner, asks me, the marketing professional, your most pressing questions about how to get your company exposure (not the kind that will get you arrested), lead generation, traffic to your website, all you’d ever want to know about online marketing, Search Engine Optimization, best use of your marketing dollars, and whatever else might cross your minds in the business growth arena. No dating questions here or how to handle your out of control toddler, just the business facts, ma’am.
Large Green asks: How do you get email addresses to send out an email newsletter and promotional stuff? I'd like to try to do email marketing myself if I can. I know I don't have what it takes to make an awesome web page and I don't have the time to do social media marketing so I've had my web page made by a professional and I use Magicbuz to do all my SocioVial marketing and that is going great.
Great question Large, as email marketing adds another essential component to your marketing that is going to help drive traffic to your website as well as keeping you in the forefront of your clients’ minds. As I’d pointed out last week, however, as effective as email marketing can be, be careful not to overstep your boundaries by slapping every email address including your kids soccer coach and your hairdresser into your distribution list. As tempting as it is to build an “instant” database, in this day of internet SPAM, the last thing you want is to be perceived as — in the words of marketing guru Seth Godin — an interruptive marketer. Rather, it’s vital that you start small and gather people’s permission to enter their mailbox.
Look at it this way, wouldn’t you rather have 100 receptive and anxious clients waiting to open up your email and read your tasty bits of info, rather than having a list of 1,000 completely uninterested (and annoyed) recipients who already have too much flooding their inbox and are all too happy to hit the delete button? If your info is compelling enough and you’re offering valuable content, your list will grow, I promise.
Make sure you make it easy for people to opt-in on your website, with an obvious opt-in box (or two, or three) and give them a good reason to do so. Are you running a special? Will they get a complimentary report? What is their incentive to opt-in, because remember, !
If you don’t yet have a website and want to offer email marketing, try sending out an initial email to your hopefuls and ask them in an introductory email if they’d like to receive your newsletter/blog/video, etc.
Some good email distribution companies are Constant Contact, for sure, E Weber, and Mail Chimp. Feedburner distributes via a RSS feed. Both Constant Contact and Mail Chimp are free up until a certain number and all offer simple to use templates with good customer service to help guide you through the process.
So go get ‘em. Get Found, Get Heard, Get Crackin’
Have a question about bringing your small business into the 21st century? Send Suzen your questions at Suzen@omaginarium.com or leave them in the comments section below. Be sure to include your name, the name of your business and contact information with your question.
